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As Toronto City Council wrestles with how to discipline Mayor Rob Ford for bad boy behaviour that has brought the city international shame, the options are limited.

The council cannot force him to resign or step aside. At best, it seems, council can register displeasure, disgust, non-confidence, regret and ask the mayor to apologize, cease and desist, and pursue rehab.

But Ford can tell them to go fly a kite — as he has since his personal travails erupted in public to despoil Toronto’s image and reputation.

In 2008, former mayor David Miller — already possessing the widest powers of a mayor in Ontario — demanded more. Specifically, he wanted powers to hire and fire top city staff; have total power to appoint and un-appoint his executive committee; and the ability to hold private meetings with the executive, like a provincial cabinet.

This would make the mayor an autocrat in a consensus-building system, with no checks and balances on his authority, some successfully argued. Placed in the hands of a tyrant, the powers would allow the mayor to thwart or circumvent the will of council by co-opting a band of councillors using patronage appointments.

Miller did get one extra plum — a four-year term instead of three. Without that, Toronto would have gone to the polls last month, providing a timely referendum on the Rob Ford years.

As it stands, expect Toronto councillors to try to debate several motions Wednesday or Thursday aimed at clipping the mayor’s wings so that he can’t retaliate and punish councillors who have stated public disapproval of Ford’s many explosive violations of public trust.

Any mayor with an ounce of respect for his city and the chain of office he wears would have long since resigned.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, instead, dares his council to discipline him. “Let’s get it on,” he said Monday.

After lying to the people of Toronto since May about his crack cocaine use, denying his alcohol abuse, Mayor Ford was forced to admit it last week. He’s sorry, Ford says. And we should just forget it happened and move on. Because he’s not moving on, “guaranteed.”

Ford won’t speak to the police to answer questions about his association with a friend who’s been charged with drug dealing and extortion, in connection with an attempt to retrieve the video that shows Ford smoking what appears to be crack cocaine.

Ford has been caught in the man’s presence numerous times in out-of-the-way places. He won’t say why he has been consorting with criminals, drug dealers and unsavoury characters, even as he declared a war on drugs.

He dismisses the pleas of his allies on council to go into rehab and return to the job after he’s been cleaned up.

So, city council wrestles with how to show its disapproval, using limited tools.

Council can ask for a judicial inquiry, a costly venture that would force Ford to answer the many questions swirling around his life. At the end of it, no charges would be laid, but it might further destroy his diminishing electability.

Or council can formally ask the Integrity Commissioner to rule on Ford’s behaviour — considering council’s code of conduct expects councillors to live by the “highest standards of conduct” and adhere to standards that “will protect and maintain the City of Toronto’s reputation and integrity.”

“Members of council are expected to perform their duties in office and arrange their private affairs in a manner that promotes public confidence and will bear close public scrutiny.”

The penalty for violation is either a reprimand or loss of three months’ salary — less than a slap on the wrist for the wealthy Ford.

Some might argue for council to have the ability to dismiss a mayor who behaves like Ford has. But there must be more democratically palatable options. Council should act to remove the people’s choice only in dire emergencies. Better to strip him of key powers and render him impotent.

Besides, there is no practical way to achieve this — without seeking provincial government intrusion. And, as disgusting as the mayor’s behaviour has been, provincial intervention should be reserved for situations where the mayor’s continued tenure would cause tangible damage.

Toronto may yet reach that point. Till then, every day Rob Ford remains mayor will be another day of reminder that we may have elected the most dishonest mayor in Canada.

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